Liam Doran (10) led his robotics team, Gear Up, to 10 wins at the FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) league meet at Sage Creek High School, ranking them third in their league, Jan. 14. The league meet was the last of this FTC robotics season before the league championships on Feb. 11. As captain of Gear Up and one of only two returning members, Doran worked with his team of eight other members to build a robot to compete in this year’s show-themed game, Centerstage. The robots competed against each other to create the most artistic patterns with hexagon-shaped tiles. But, before he could build any robots, Doran had to build a new Gear Up team. 

“Last year, the whole Gear Up team was seniors except for two other freshmen and me,” Doran said. “They all graduated, so it was a huge recruitment effort to find seven new members. There was a lot of concern about whether the team would mesh well because of so many new recruits, but I’m really happy that it all worked out for us, and we’ve had a very successful start to the season. From what I can see, these people really enjoy working with each other.”

When the competition requirements and tasks were released in September, Gear Up designed the first of over 20 versions of the robot, which was required to pick up hexagon-shaped tiles called pixels from the floor and place them on a backdrop. It must avoid clashes with other robots in the field, and fit within an 18 by 18-inch box before entering the playing field. 

“More points can be scored if the pixels are placed higher up on the backdrop,” Doran said. “The size restriction keeps teams from just building a huge robot, but our robot expands to about three feet once it’s on the playing field.” 

Doran’s group fulfilled the expectation of picking up the pixels by adding rollers to the bottom of the robot that “vacuum” the pixels off the floor and into a basket in the robot. The basket is pulled up a slide that guides the pixels to the pixel backdrop where they fit together and can create patterns, to score additional points.  

“Our very first iteration of the basket was pretty horrible,” Doran said. “We made it out of cardboard by just cutting up a shipping box and taping it together. But from there we knew that the [roller, basket, and slide] scoring method actually worked. We just kept going at it. It’s such a unique idea that we believed had potential, and it’s paid off. Our version now works pretty well.”

Throughout the FTC season, teams are constantly adjusting the design and build of their robots. Doran said that failing to consistently improve the robot would make them fall behind the competition. 

“We make small refinements,” Doran said. “Sometimes the really small changes make it so much better. Between this meet and our league championships, we’re planning on mostly making a bunch of small changes that can make the robot more reliable.”

On Jan. 14, a little before 8 a.m., Doran and the Gear Up team arrived at Sage Creek and began to set up their “pit,” their claimed space outside where they prepared their robot and waited for the matches. After a careful inspection by a referee to confirm that the robot met the requirements, the team was finally put on the playing field to compete in six matches. 

The field was in the high school gym, a rectangular area covered in foam tiles, set up with backdrops and scattered with hexagon pixels. Gear Up practiced for months in their coach’s garage, driving and moving pixels on a simulated playing field which they built by buying their own practice set of pixels, a set of foam tiles, and a backdrop. 

“When we got the tasks in September, we set up our partial field in our coach’s garage, so then we had a game to play,” Doran said. “We couldn’t fit the whole competition-sized playing field in the garage. We improvised by rearranging the structures, allowing us to test our robot’s range of motion more accurately.” 

In each match, the robot was first tested on its ability to complete tasks autonomously with the use of eight sensors for 30 seconds. Doran then controlled the movement of the robot to complete a similar task alongside Nishk Shah (10) and Miles Lin (10) in the driver-controlled portion of the match that lasted two minutes.

Despite extra precautions of adding protective panels to the robot, an accident couldn’t be avoided during the third match, worrying Doran, Gear Up, and many spectators when a loud ‘bang’ echoed in the gym. 

“During the autonomous period of the third match, our robot and another robot moved toward each other pretty fast and hit each other,” Doran said. “There was a ‘bang’ when they collided and the whole gym was kind of shocked by the noise. Watching this robot that I had poured so much work into just slam into another robot was terrifying.”

Luckily, the collision only minimally affected both robots. Although the intake system to pick up pixels was impacted, Gear Up was able to continue the match even into the driver-controlled portion. 

“It was a catastrophe at the beginning, but the rest of the match wasn’t horrible and we still won,” Doran said. “We were just so thankful that our robot wasn’t damaged terribly and that the other team’s robot wasn’t damaged either.”

In the 15 minutes after the third match, Gear Up managed to adjust their robot to work up to par for the next three matches. They won five matches, which added to the previous five wins from past league meets, ultimately ranking Gear Up third in their league and fifth in the total rankings for their league championship. 

“The rankings are based first on wins and losses, maxing out at ten wins,” Doran said. “To be at the top of the rankings, you have to have ten or more wins.”

Doran said he’s proud of his team for the success, but another major part of FTC robotics competitions is the community for the teams and mutual support among competitors. 

“[FTC league meets] are competitions but don’t come with the negative connotations of competitiveness,” Doran said. “The best part of the competition is just the community around it and the inclusivity of teams. For example, after the third match, the other team came to our pit and checked on us to make sure our robot didn’t take any major damage. I think that’s a great part of this program and super cool for everyone in the program to experience.”